With the Super Bowl being played tonight, I thought it'd be cool to look up some plays and musicals that focus on one of American's greatest pastimes.
*All American: Written by Mel Brooks, with music by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse, this musical-farce is set on the campus of a fictional Southern Baptist university. When the techniques of an engineering instructor result in a winning football team, the professor finds him-self surrounded by people that want to exploit his fame. The show opened on March 19, 1962, at the Winter Garden Theatre, and it starred Ray Bolger of Wizard of Oz fame.
*Colossal: Written by Andrew Hinderaker and set on a college football field in Texas, this poignant work is about a star football player that finds it difficult to move on from a crippling spinal cord injury. In doing so, the play celebrates and attacks football; our nation's most popular form of theatre. The show opened at the Olney Theater in Olney, Maryland in September of 2014, and it focuses on the definitions of masculinity and the male body.
*Death of a Salesman: Arthur Miller’s great American tragedy is about a salesman, Willy, whose son, Biff, was a high school football star. Unfortunately, Biff never put much effort into his coursework and, as his father never encouraged him to get high marks, the young man found himself unable to graduate and go to college. This play about the resentment between a father and son, opened at New York's Morosco Theatre on February 10, 1949.
*Fences: Written by August Wilson and set in the 1950s, this play tells the story of a young man who is offered a football scholarship at a leading university. His father, however, refuses to sign the permission papers, as he does not want his son to face the same racial discrimination he has endured. This masterpiece opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York on March 26, 1987, and it starred James Earl Jones of Star Wars fame.
*Good News: With music by B.G. DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson, and book by Laurence Schwab and Frank Mandel, this two-act musical-comedy opened at Chanin's 46th Street Theatre in New York on September 6, 1927. It tells the story of a college football star who is failing his astronomy class; a course he must pass in order to stay on the team. While getting help from a studious co-ed, the athlete falls in love with the young lady after realizing they both have a lot in common.
Sources:
Broadway League, The. "All American." Internet Broadway Database.
2001-2024, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/all-
american-2772.
Broadway League, The. "Death of a Salesman." Internet Broadway
Database. 2001-2024, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-
production/death-of-a-salesman-2111.
Broadway League, The. "Fences." Internet Broadway Database. 2001-
2024, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/fences-4446.
Broadway League, The. "Good News." Internet Broadway
Database. 2001-2024, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-
production/good-news-10358.
Coleman, Ben. "Colossal: A Playwright and An Actor Toss the Ball Back
and Forth." Concord Theatricals. 5 October, 2017,
https://breakingcharacter.com/colossal-a-playwright-and-an-actor-
toss-the-ball-back-and-forth/.
Firestone, Lonnie. "Football Dramas That Love the Players, Question
the Game." American Theatre, 27 January, 2015,
https://www.americantheatre.org/2015/01/27/football-dramas-
that-love-the-players-question-the-game/.
Meyer, Dan. "13 Musicals and Plays About Sports." Playbill, 23 July,
2021, https://playbill.com/article/13-musicals-and-plays-about-
sports.
Moore, John. "Five Plays about Football: Is Truth Better Drama than
Drama?" Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 6 February,
2016, https://www.denvercenter.org/news-center/five-plays-about-
football-is-truth-better-drama-than-drama/.
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